Outdated HTML elements

What we check

On the home page we look for HTML elements that are no longer provided for in HTML5:

Element	What it was used for	Today
<font>	Typeface, size, colour	CSS
<center>	Centring	CSS text-align or Flexbox
<big>, <tt>, <strike>	Size, typewriter font, strikethrough	CSS or <s>, <code>
<marquee>, <blink>	Scrolling text, blinking	no equivalent (disturbing)
<frame>, <frameset>	Splitting the page into frames	normal layout
<applet>	Java programs	no longer exists
<acronym>, <dir>, <basefont>	Abbreviations, lists, base font	<abbr>, <ul>, CSS

If we find at least one of them, there is a warning. In the report you see which elements occur how often.

Why it matters

These elements come from the beginnings of the web, when design and content were not yet separated. With HTML5 they were removed from the standard.

• No guarantee: browsers still display most of them, out of consideration for old websites. They can restrict support at any time, though.
• Bad for smartphones: fixed font sizes and layouts made from <font> and <center> do not adapt to small screens.
• Bad for accessibility: scrolling text and blinking disturb people with concentration difficulties and an epilepsy risk.
• A sign of age: such elements show that parts of the website have not been revised for a long time.

How to fix it

Texts in the CMS

The most common cause is texts that were copied into the editor from Word, emails or an old website. To fix it:

1. Open the text in the editor.
2. Select the affected section and remove the formatting ("Clear formatting", usually an icon with a crossed-out T).
3. Format it again with the means of the editor: heading, bold, alignment.

Tip: in future paste texts as "Paste as plain text" (Ctrl+Shift+V or Cmd+Shift+V).

In the code

Replace the elements with CSS:

<!-- old -->
<center><font color="red" size="4">Special offer!</font></center>

<!-- new -->
<p class="notice">Special offer!</p>

.notice { text-align: center; color: #c00; font-size: 1.25rem; }

Frames

If the whole website is built with <frameset>, it is technically over 20 years old. A rebuild is worthwhile here instead of a repair.

How to check it yourself

Open the page source and use Ctrl+F to search for <font, <center and <marquee. The W3C validator also reports outdated elements.

Frequently asked questions

Where do such elements come from in a modern website?

Often from texts copied from Word or an old website, from old editors in the CMS or from embedded widgets. They rarely come from the theme itself.

Can they simply be deleted?

Usually yes, but then the styling they produced is missing, such as a colour or centring. Replace them with the appropriate formatting in the editor or in CSS.